SL court in Aralaganwila discriminates Tamil dairy farmers from Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 February 2018, 16:21 GMT]
The SL court in Aralaganwila, which comes under the Polonnaruwa district was addressing a case filed by the so-called Department of Wildlife Conservation of genocidal Sri Lanka against Tamil dairy farmers on 05 February. Eight Tamil farmers who took their cattle for grazing in Mayilaththamadu pasturelands in Batticaloa district complained to the SL Police at Karadiyanaa'ru on 30th January that their cattle were being targeted with animal traps. The Sinhala policemen instructed the Tamil farmers to remove the traps and promised to trace the culprits. Later on the same day guards from the SL Wildlife Department from Aralaganwila entered the huts of Tamil farmers in Batticaloa and charged the Tamil farmers for being in possession of animal traps.

The SL police was conniving with the Wildlife Department guards, the dairy farmers blamed.

Later, when the case was taken up for investigation by the SL court in Aralanganwila, the documents submitted by Tamil dairy farmers proving their right to use Mayilaththa-madu pasturelands were ignored.

The court was fully backing the claim of SL Wildlife Department. The Tamil farmers were instructed to pay a fine of 25,000 rupees.

The dairy farmers blamed the move as another step by Polonnaruwa-based Sinhala establishment to grab the lands of Eezham Tamils in Batticaloa for Sinhala colonisation.

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